It’s a Barnum & Bailey World, just as phony as it can be…”state the lyrics of the song “Paper Moon,” made popular several years back by the immortal Nat King Cole.
Few today have ever heard of it, and only a few of those have considered the truth of it. Deceit and mendacity are so commonplace in society that truthfulness and honesty are frowned upon, unwelcome and unpopular. We often speak with phony accents of facts, which are not accurate. We have made the cosmetics business a mega-bucks industry and go to inconceivable lengths and expense to impress others by pretending we look like we don’t, are someone or something we are not, possess things or know people we do not, have done things, or been places which we have not. And for what purpose—to gain acceptance, recognition, or respect which we feel denied of or incapable of earning.
The mind cannot fathom what a wonderful world this could be if we put the same effort and energy into impressing God that we misspend on trying to impress people. Some one has wisely stated: “We wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.”
Everyone has a need to be needed and a desire to be appreciated, differing only by degrees. But too often the very acts of dedication, commitment, and service which merit honorable mention, evoke envy and resentment instead. Its like the high achiever in the classroom or on the job who is ridiculed by peers, thus dampening the initiative to explore one’s potential.
In our Barnum & Bailey world, we spend so much precious time pretending while trying to find our identity that we deprive ourselves of the realization of our innate nobility, a concept introduced to me through the Baha’i writings. This serves as a far greater incentive to those who tend to live up, or down to expectations. When we are people programmed we are more likely to dwell on our weakness and shortcomings, as well as those of others. In this spiritually depraved condition we become captive to our animal instincts and soon become reduced to that level.
When we are people programmed it becomes easy to deem it honorable to kill other human beings in the name of religion, revenge, or patriotism and subsequently convince or confuse innumerable armies of knaves, slaves and increasingly more sophisticated men and women to fight, kill and willingly be killed that a few in comparison can continue to live in luxury. It has been so since the beginning of time.
Let’s dare to be real and unpopular by becoming instruments of God’s peace and love (which we are incapable of in ourselves) or we can choose to remain physically, emotionally, and psychologically vulnerable in this Barnum & Bailey world, just as phony as it can be…..The choice is ours!
